Monday, 5 October 2015

Working in a bronze foundry for a number of years as well as several metal and restoration studios has given Marion L a multi disciplinary skill base for her move into Jewellery design. You can see how her love of patination and surface texture from her years as a sculptor has spilled over into her jewellery practise.

Marion Lebouteiller is also one of our Jewellery Alumni from our structured jewellery courses at City Lit. It's great to see so many of them from over the last 4 years+ doing so well for themselves in industry, I like to share their successes when I can.

Marion L says about herself..."I am an emerging French jeweller who now lives and works in England. The pieces I make are born out of my fascination for materials and colours. My background as a chaser and patinateur on bronze sculptures influences deeply my approach to contemporary art jewellery."

"Whilst combining silver and bronze I allude to the natural and the cultural worlds and highlight contrasts of colours, textures, concept of full and void… I am inspired by my surroundings and by the Japanese culture and the « Wabi-Sabi » philosophy: the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete".

Here are some images from her collections, including piece from: Infinite, Lichen, Twist and Gravity...

Sunday, 4 October 2015

This afternoon I took a trip over to Bedgebury Pinetum, one of my favourite local places, which actually has redwood trees! I find it so amazing they have these exotic trees in Kent and it always makes me think of the film Vertigo! I was in the Natural History museum a few weeks back and saw the giant slice of redwood tree which reminded me I had not been to begdgebury in ages.

Over the Summer there was a photography exhibition at Bedgebury, which I unfortunately missed, but they still had some of the images on display in the woodland. They looked quite surreal as the images were taken in woodland in Cambodia, but were shown alongside the trees of Bedgebury. One in particular I really loved was of a Monk sitting in the forest. It was very striking and peaceful. The brilliant orange of his robes looked amazing against the pine trees and autumnal leaves. It was at Magic Hour too, so the light made it look very special

"Guardians of the Areng Valley is a major new outdoor photography exhibition by internationally acclaimed photographer Luke Duggleby. 30 spectacular large scale colour photographs, which present Duggleby’s journey into the remote Cardamom Forest of Southwest Cambodia will be displayed amongst the trees in the National Pinetum, one of the largest and most complete collections of conifers in the world."

"The photographs focus on the rapid forest destruction which threatens critically endangered species and indigenous forest communities. They also shine a light on a growing environmental movement pioneered by Buddhist Monks to raise awareness and help communities fight against further destruction of these critically important forest eco-systems."